Hard disk drives (HDDs) have become the preeminent mass storage medium in the field of digital information storage. A HDD includes one or more magnetic heads produced in a magnetic head slider positioned at the end of a gimbal for reading from/writing to a magnetic disk which stores magnetic information. Magnetic information is written to and read from the magnetic disk while the magnetic head slider flies only a few nanometers above the magnetic disk being rotated by a spindle motor. Being able to produce smaller read and write elements, which are embedded in the magnetic head, and using a lower flying height of the magnetic head slider are possible ways to achieve higher recording densities on a HDD. Higher precision is sought in the dimensional precision of the elements as the elements become smaller, however, and in particular, the precision demanded for the element height, the dimension in the direction of the read and write elements away from the magnetic disk, is on the order of nanometers. The element height is determined in the process that forms the air bearing surface (ABS) through polishing the ABS of the magnetic head slider. However, in order to achieve the demanded precision in this process, as disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2006-344381, the resistance of a resistance detection element formed in the vicinity of the read element of the magnetic head slider is measured during the process, and the element heights are processed with high precision based on the reading. On the other hand, as disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2009-99219, to further lower the flying height, a heater element is embedded in the magnetic head slider to thermally expand the read and write elements to make contact with the magnetic disk, and the current flow applied to the heater element is controlled so that the elements fly at the prescribed height from a contact point with the magnetic disk. The read element, write element, resistance detection element, and heater element are connected by lead wires to gold terminals formed on the side surface of the magnetic head slider. In one prior art example, at least eight gold terminals are formed in the side surface of the magnetic head slider.